Hypothermia
by Coffee Monsta
Summary: Toad and Archer are on a training hike. Everything was going fine... until they tried to cross the frozen lake. Part one is angsty and part two should be kinda fluffy! Toarcher snuggles are included :3


**A/N: Lol hi... here is some Toarcher angst for you :D**

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 **Archer P.O.V**

I sighed as I trudged through the snow alongside Toad. We were on a training hike in the middle of November. Our goal was to reach a temporary base that was 60 miles from where we had started. Toad and I were freezing despite the multiple layers of clothing we had on under our thick jackets. Snow fell from the sky and collected on the ground beneath our feet, making it harder to walk. We had been doing good at first, but after several hours of being out here, the cold seeped through our clothes and drained our energy.

Toad glanced at me as I rubbed my hands together in an attempt to get them warm.

"You wanna stop and rest for a few minutes?"

I shook my head and replied, "We haven't gotten far enough yet. Maybe once we get across the lake."

He nodded and we trudged on. The thick layer of ice that covered the lake was so slippery that I almost fell after going only a few feet. Luckily Toad caught me. After a while, the wind picked up. The snow felt like needles as it hit my skin. My legs burned from the strain of walking for hours, but I was determined to keep going. We had to at least get across this damned lake before we took a break.

It was freezing and we both almost fell several times, but after about 20 minutes, we were almost there. The edge of the lake was about 15 feet away.

"Oh, thank god. The end is near!" I said with a grin.

Toad laughed and said, "It wasn't _that_ bad."

"Like hell it wasn't! I almost fell on my face several times."

"And luckily your handsome prince was here to catch you, so you're fine."

"Yeah, well I still hate this bloody la-"

As soon as I put my foot down, I knew something was wrong. I tried to step back, but it was too late.

The ice below me gave way with a crack, and I fell into the freezing water.

 **Third Person P.O.V**

It had all happened so quickly. One second the ice had cracked and the next, Archer was in the water.

"Shit!"

Archer's head popped up and he gasped, coughing and choking as he inhaled some of the icy water. Toad resisted the overwhelming urge to run to him and carefully crept to the edge. The ice held up fine... But he was still extremely cautious. He grabbed Archer's outstretched hand and slowly pulled him out. He would've done it faster, but if the ice broke and he fell in with him, it wouldn't help anything. Luckily the ice didn't break again and he was able to get Archer out without any issues.

As soon as he was out of the water, he curled in on himself, his whole body shaking. He coughed and choked, his body trying to get the freezing water out of his lungs. Toad immediately called an emergency medevac, but they said they were 15-20 minutes out and that he needed to try and warm Arch up some before they arrived.

He starting cutting his soaked clothes off. He was no doctor, but he knew enough about hypothermia to know that if you moved someone too much, they could go into cardiac arrest. That would be bad... And because they were soaked in freezing water, they were only making him colder. Believe it or not, at this point he'd be warmer without his clothes on.

"T-t-toad..." He chattered, weakly attempting to push his hands away as he pulled his heavy jacket off.

"Shhh, this'll help you get warm."

He continued cutting off his clothes until he had a pile of soaked clothes on one side and a nearly naked boyfriend on the other.

Then he took off his warm, dry jacket and put it on him. He would've given him a couple sweatshirts as well but he;d have to pull those over his head and he was afraid that he'd need to move him around too much to do that. He ended up taking off the sweatshirts and laying one on the ground so Arch could sit on it. The other was placed over his legs. That basically left Toad in a thin long-sleeved shirt with his kevlar vest underneath, and a tank top below that.

He was cold as hell now, but Archer seemed to feel slightly better and that was all that mattered to him.

He pulled him into his arms and held him close, hoping his body heat would help warm him up some more. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf. His lips were blue. His breathing was slow and shallow. He seemed to have passed out, which wasn't a particularly good sign.

He kissed him on the head, saying, "You're gonna be fine..."

But he wasn't sure if he believed it.

A couple minutes later, the helicopter finally arrived. They got Arch on board as quickly as possible, Doc starting a warm IV drip and asking Toad about the details as he took Archer's temperature. He explained everything and Doc nodded as he wrote down his temperature and a list of symptoms.

"He has moderate hypothermia, but it easily could've escalated to a severe case if you hadn't gotten those wet clothes off of him as quickly as you did. I've started a warm saline drip and I'm also gonna have him on humidified oxygen to help rewarm his airway. And of course, heating blankets and stuff but for now we'll just stick with regular blankets. We have to be careful not to warm him up too fast. If it's not done gradually, things are just gonna get worse." He explained, tucking a couple blankets around Archer's small form.

"Okay," Toad mumbled.

Then he turned as another thought occurred to him.

"Did he inhale any of the water when he went under?"

Toad nodded glumly.

"When I got him out, he was coughing it up..."

"I was hoping that wasn't the case... We'll need to watch him for Pneumonia now as well."

Toad groaned and put his face in his hands.

The medic sat on the cot beside the sniper's and patted it, saying, "Your turn. Come sit."

"Ugh... I'm fine," He grumbled, waving a hand at him, "Focus on Arch."

"There's nothing else I can do for him right now. And you won't be able to take care of him when he wakes up if you're in shitty shape as well. So sit your ass down and lemme take a look at you." The older man said firmly, putting a stop to the argument before it could get far.

After a moment, Toad sighed and shuffled over to the cot, reluctantly taking a seat.

"Thank you."

He took his temperature and wrote it down, listened to his breathing, then asked him a couple questions. After a few minutes, he glanced over his notes and nodded.

"As I suspected, you have mild hypothermia. Luckily it doesn't take much to treat it, so you'll be fine in a couple hours. You just need a heating blanket, some warm fluids, and rest."

He just nodded, barely paying attention. Doc followed his gaze to Archer's small form and rolled his eyes.

"Quit making googly eyes at your boyfriend and lay down," He grinned, shoving at his shoulder and going to grab the heating blanket.

It took him a couple minutes to get him set up in bed, then he went to check on Archer again. He nodded in approval when he saw that his temperature had gone up a bit. They still had a while until his body would reach a regular temperature again, but he'd get there. He'd just have to keep a close eye on him until then.

"ETA is 20 minutes," the pilot said from up front.

Doc nodded and glanced at Toad, who seemed determined to stare a hole into Archer's face.

"Oi," he frowned, "Get some rest, you idiot. Before I separate you two until you're better."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really? How are you gonna separate us? You gonna chuck me out the window, Doc?"

"No, but as soon as we get back to base I'll put you in separate rooms and that's where you'll stay until you've improved."

"...Well that's not very nice."

He shrugged, saying, "I don't care. My job isn't to be nice to you guys, it's to get you feeling better. Now get some rest. Quit worrying about Arch, he's fine."

"Yeah... for now."

"You worry too much."

"Says the mom friend who's always hovering..." He grumbled halfheartedly.

Doc cupped a hand behind his ear and leaned forward a bit, raising his eyebrows.

"Excuse me, Christian?" He asked, "Didn't quite catch that."

He coughed as he tried to suppress a grin.

"...Nothing, imma get some sleep."

The medic nodded approvingly.

"You do that."

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 **A/N: So yeah that's the first part! I'll try and get part two out as soon as I can but I'm usually pretty busy so it may be a while... sorry. I'll try though! Also lol I know that was a weird place to stop the chapter and I apologize, but I tried to keep going and kept getting stuck. So it was either cut this part off in a weird place or this never gets published sooo yeah had to pick the lesser of two evils lol.**

 **Anywho, please leave a review if you liked it! I appreciate reviews :3**


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